the poetry of gormenghast
by fuschia1
Summary: I got to choose which poems to 'dissect' 4 english so I picked two from Titus Groan - contains insights into the book + references in the poems u may not have noticed!


What do you find interesting about Mervyn Peake's imagery in the poems 'The Frivolous Cake' and the untitled poem from 'Titus Groan'?

I find the mixture of beauty and darkness in the untitled poem interesting because the feeling of mourning amongst surrounding beauties shows feelings of incompleteness and a hungering after company.  The poem is pleading for the company of another and it speaks of loneliness as he travels perhaps in search of this company.  

'I have lingered in the cloisters Of the northern wing at night' 

What is interesting is that though the poet cries out for company, it seems like he has given up hope of ever finding this as he lingers in his journeys, and seems in no hurry to seek this company and instead pleads or even prays for deliverance.  Though he may linger to enjoy the world and beauty around him, the **'spirit's hunger' remains and spoils the view around him as is shown in this third stanza**

**'I have lingered in the cloisters**

**Of the Northern wing at night,**

As the sky unclasped its oysters 

**On the midnight pearls of light.**

**For the long remorseless shadows**

**Chilled me with exquisite fear.**

**I have lingered in cold meadows**

**Through a month of rain, my dear.'**

Though he is witness to beauty, it is tarnished by his mourning and the night not only brings the stars but 'remorseless shadows' tainting the splendour.  

   You are given the feeling that the poet has been lingering for an age, and in keeping with the book from which it is taken there is a feeling of decay amongst fading splendour 

'In dark alcoves I have lingered 

**Conscious of dead dynasties.'**

And this decay seems to be present within the poet's mind as he describes

**'Being lonely drives the splendor**

**of my vision from my mind.'**

Implying that the beauty around him cannot be enjoyed or appreciated because of the mourning and loneliness that he feels, which therefore spoils his lingering and 'drives the vision' of that around him to nothing as he can never value it while these emotions are torturing him.   

   I find that the rhythm of the poem itself is in keeping with the mourning and pleading mood of the poet.  It is slow, ruminative of the surrounding world and reads with a flowing listless and simple rhythm.  It reads well and carries you through the lines smoothly, and the repetition within the second, fourth, sixth and eighth stanzas between the descriptions of beauty are inciting and appealing for fellowship.  

   I find it interesting that the third stanza could be referring to the character Steerpike and his journey along the 'stone field' and across the rooftops of Gormenghast.  His lack of imagination does not allow him to appreciate the beauty around him and he instead views it all as potential cards to play, plotting the uses of everything in his rise to power.  The poet is unable to enjoy it not from a lack of imagination, but from a feeling of necessity of company as Steerpike is in need of imagination.    Another line that may refer to Steerpike and his climb across the **'parapets of Groan' may be******

'I have lingered in cold meadows 

**Through a month of rain my dear.'**

because the cold meadows may represent the stone quadrangle field that he circled beneath the **'midnight pearls of light' and his climb of two days across the rooftops which seemed more like a month of hardship, pain and torture to him.  Similarly, the journey described by the poet may speak of all the journeys Steerpike undertakes later in the book, revelling in exploration he undertakes to explore the whole castle and its grounds purely for the sake of being the first one to take the initiative to do so.  Though the character Steerpike enjoys being alone with his thoughts and ambitions, the necessity of company described in the poem may describe the necessity of people on which he can use his ambition to further his climb up the ranks of society. **

   Mervyn Peake's world of Gormenghast is full of weird and wonderful imagery, and his artistic nature shows through in the imagery of the poem describing

'I have lingered in blue cellars 

**And in the hollow trunks of trees.'**

This sort of surreal imagery creates a vision of the fantastical place the poet describes, and what I find interesting is the integration of beauty, age, absurdity and darkness within the poem.  The lines

**'And in the hollow trunks of trees.'**

show a beauty within the surrealist imagery, and it shows a childish aspect of the poet as he lingers in '**the hollow trunks of trees' perhaps revelling in**** being cramped and**** hidden from the rest of the world, only to startle ****'a traveler through moonlight'.****  However, even a young child tires of exploring and mischief and desires company after the most exciting days alone as human nature naturally seeks companionship.**

   The poet's lingering is not completely childish, there is a strong ruminative quality to his descriptions, and he is aware of and contemplates the decay and splendour around him with the eyes of an adult.  This awareness of nature's beauty shows quite an enlightened mind, and the following lines

**'Will you come with me and linger?**

**And discourse with me of those**

**Secret things the mystic finger**

Points to, but will not disclose?' 

show an awareness of the more abstract and mysterious aspects of the world around him.  He displays an inquisitive mind as he travels, lingers and cogitates on these aspects, but shows a desire to discuss his findings with another and perhaps discover answers from a different outlook.  

   What I also find interesting, is the references to the family of Groan within the second, fourth, sixth and eighth stanzas.  Their hereditary sovereignty presides over the whole of Gormenghast, and the poet is so much a part of this archaic castle that where ever he may be, he feels the pulse of their authority across his world and is aware of their presence.  This presence could be a form of company for the poet, but their sovereignty ensures that they are apart from everyone else and the poet is unable to feel any fellowship.  He remains aware of their presence, but detached from the individuals of the family, only half remembering their existence with a start as the distant sound of **'the footstep of the Groan' is heard.**

      Without any company other than the remembrance of a higher monarchy, the poet remains alone.  He speaks of his isolation affecting his mind, loosing his inspiration because of his lack of the public persona that drives him to create.  

'When I'm all alone, my glory, Always fades because I find Being lonely always drives the splendour 

**Of the vision from my mind.'**

These lines paint the public and any possible company as motivation for the poet, without these the **'splendour' of his poems and talent fades to nothing.  This may be because a poet needs a subject on which to mediate before any poetry is produced, and with the absence of life, there is an absence of material.  Again, I find it interesting that throughout this poem are references to the character Steerpike.  I find a link with the poet's lack of inspiration, because Steerpike plays upon and manipulates everybody around him, moulding them to suit his designs.  Without material, he is powerless and this was why his escape from the kitchen was so imperative in his advance up the social ladder of the castle. Within the kitchens, his materials were kitchen lackeys with no influence or power that he could use.  In a sense, the kitchens drove the splendour from his mind. **

What I find interesting about the poem 'The frivolous cake' is the fact that the poem is absurd, grotesque surrealism intertwined with ideas that would seem well placed in a child's song or rhyme.  

**'A freckled and frivolous cake there was**

That sailed on a pointless sea,' 

I also find interesting the fact that the cake is, against all reason, emphatic and free.  The imagery portrays the cake as a careless innocent on a joyride across a mournful sea.

'Or any lugubrious lake there was 

**In a manner emphatic and free.'**

Moreover, from this, I find it interesting that the character Fuschia from the book Titus Groan is linked with this poem.  Taken from her book of poems, this is her favourite poem, which may be because the innocence, absurd and childish aspects of her nature are portrayed within the 'frivolous cake'.  She is an imaginative, naive, romantic, and, at times, a painfully simple character, so immature and vulnerable as to be destined to tragedy. The 'frivolous cake' succumbs to its destiny, (plainly to be eaten), through the 

**'throes of love'**

as Fuschia surrenders to her tragic suicide after her abused and misguided affection for Steerpike.

     The knife could be a representation of the character Steerpike and the harm he did to the innocent yet elemental spirit of Fuchsia.   The knife ****

**'Who winketh his glamorous indigo eye**

**In the wake of his future wife.'**

gives an image of his manipulative seduction of Fuschia beneath the guise of a gallant and romantic admirer.  Steerpike takes on the image of the vivacious adventurer of Fuschia's daydreams to seduce her and use her to his advantage, just as the frivolous cake is unsuspecting prey for the **'Knife in the wake' who plays upon its innocence and leads it to a premeditated destruction.  In this same destruction, there is the surreal and grotesque image portraying the knife cutting through the cake's centre as an act of love.  **

'The crumbs blow free down the pointless sea 

**To the beat of a cakey heart**

**And the sensitive steel of the knife can feel**

**That love is a race apart.' **

I find it interesting that the knife is described as **'Sensitive steel' combining two very different words to describe one object.  On one hand, the knife is sensitive, therefore emotional, sympathetic and sensible to love.  While on the other hand it is a cold, refined metal, emotionless, cold, remorseless and loveless.  This may again refer to the character Steerpike because he is described as being as sharp as his swordstick of metal, yet sensitive of and playing with the weaknesses and emotions of others.  **

   I also find it interesting that the hake that joined in with the revelry and joviality of the first stanzas are a means for the destruction of the frivolous cake in the end.  When at first they swam alongside, they devour it in the lines

**'In the speed of the lingering light are blown**

**The crumbs to the hake above,'**

Again, the link to the character Fuschia is evident, as her escapism from the world around her through her play-acting, immaturity and imagination are part of her destruction in her last moments.  Like the cake, the childish unawareness is what leads her to tragedy while she is play-acting the tragic suicide of a heroine in one of her books and foolishly slips from a windowsill and drowns.

      The third stanza describes a clumsy ride across the waves with the knife bouncing and skimming alongside, preying on the cake as a hunter, giving this poem a feeling of apprehension and impending tragedy.  Though the poem has this running unease, it is mostly full of comic ideas and surrealism.  For example, the lines

**'Around the shores of the Elegant Isles**

**Where the cat-fish bask and purr**

**And lick their paws with adhesive smiles**

**And wriggle their fins of fur,'**

are a comic collision of two ideas, mixing the cat-fish with the common day house cat.  As most adults know, though sharing a similar namesake, these two animals are very different.  This idea is similar to a child's view of life, and who else but a child would imagine a 'furry fish' when they hear the word catfish? 

   I find it interesting that throughout the poem there is a feeling of time passing.  At the beginning in the first stanza the fish are thrown to, and through the **'lilac air', though as the cake's jollity ends in the ****'lingering light' the poem ends with the approach of night and the ending of a sunset.  The idea of the lilac sunset and the death of the day intertwined with the death of the frivolous cake are an example of Peake merging the two different ideas of beauty and death just as he mixed the two ideas of the 'furry fish'. **

Both poems seem to relate to the two characters Steerpike and Fuchsia, their relationship, personalities and, in particular within 'The frivolous cake', their destiny.  Within the frivolous cake, the poem foretells Fuschia's suicide and even lays the blame on Steerpike, yet in the book she reads the poem hurriedly without taking in any of its meaning. In reading the poem she was practically reading her future and I find it interesting that had she understood the meaning and significance of the words it may have prevented her suicide by alerting her to Steerpike's character.  Similarly, the untitled poem, which largely seems to refer to the character Steerpike, was dismissed as soon as he conceived the idea of the poem.  Again, the poem is ignored where it could have given the character an insight into his personality and destiny.  In the first few lines, the lines

**'Surely 'tis a wastrel's duty.'**

could show Steerpike's awareness of his intelligence and his feelings that he should be better placed that a menial kitchen apprentice.  As the pleading for company becomes more desperate in the last lines, Steerpike's ambition for self-advancement becomes stronger and self destructive towards the end of the book. As he reaches the zenith of his ambition, the brilliance of his mind is driven away by a form of insanity brought about either by a terrible scaring of the face which he endures, or from an inability to cope with the power he has striven for.****

   Both poems show a deeper strand of either character, predict their destiny, and are ignored where they could have proved beneficial. Both poems appear within something consequential to either character, to Fuschia the poem was read from a beloved book that represented all of her immaturity and imagination, to Steerpike from the grotesque poet who was his first failure on his road to power. The poetry provide a mystical undertone to the story, acting as a warning to the characters, perhaps even an attempt by the stones of Gormenghast to prevent the deaths of the two characters which lead to the destruction of the house of Groan and all of Gormenghast's ritual monotony and sovereignty. 


End file.
